Mia's fifth album doesn't hit its target, but there's fun to be had along the way.
If the sound of chirping birds gets on your nerves, wait till you hear MIA's take. Bird Song spirals up one of the world's most annoying noises into something so jarringly awful it's barely listenable. This atrocity exists on Aim, MIA's fifth album, twice.
It's a good analogy for where
MIA's at. The 41-year-old has always annoyed and entertained in equal measures, marrying biting political commentary to her skittery, intelligent, future-focused take on pop.
On Aim, she misses her target - sometimes quite badly.
With its middle-eastern-influenced thuds, Borders could have become another Paper Planes, her infectious statement on capitalism and gun violence from 2007. Given Donald Trump's plans to build the ultimate border, it'd be timely too.
Instead, we get Mathangi Arulpragasam asking, "Borders, what's up with that? Politics, what's up with that? Identities, what's up with that?" They're laughably simple questions, and ruin an otherwise solid opening shot.
